


Back to Brooklyn

by BuckyFrickenBarnes



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bucky Barnes is Not the Winter Soldier, Coming Out, Fluff, Gay Bucky Barnes, Gay Steve Rogers, Getting Together, High School Reunion, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers is Not Captain America, Steve Rogers is sick of these hoes, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 18:59:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18580621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuckyFrickenBarnes/pseuds/BuckyFrickenBarnes
Summary: It's been years since Bucky and Steve have seen each other. Steve is sick of only being seen as a piece of meat.OrThe one where Bucky and Steve could have gotten together a hell of a lot sooner if they weren't scared and stubborn.





	Back to Brooklyn

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first work I have ever posted on here and I haven't written fics in YEARS. So, any feedback or criticism is greatly appreciated thanks. I proofread this but that doesn't mean I missed shit bc tbh, I'm oblivious. Also, my 'r' key is kinda fucked up so if I'm missing r's please let me know. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Bucky wasn’t particularly looking forward to going to his high school reunion tonight. He only talked to about 3 people and he wasn’t even sure if they were going to be there. It was almost like there was no point in coming. At the same time though, showing up proved that he wasn’t as weak and lanky as he used to be. Fuck it, if he wanted to show off how much he had changed in 10 years, then no one was going to stop him.

\-----

He had been sitting at a table to the side of the room, trying to keep an eye out for anyone he remotely wanted to talk to.  

“Little Stevie Rogers?” Bucky heard from behind him. His first thought was _Steve?!? Where?!?_ “Little shit grew up didn’t he Rumlow?”

Bucky turned to see two stocky men, known as Rumlow and Ward, approach a figure that was sitting facing the other direction but was clearly built like a Greek God.

“Ward, Rumlow. I would say it’s nice to see you, but it really isn’t.” _That voice._

“Awww, don’t be like that Stevie.” Rumlow sang as he draped an arm around the man’s shoulder.

“Don’t call me that. And get your hands off me.” The man quickly plucked Rumlow’s arm off him.

_Last time he heard that voice was 4 or 5 years ago when he accidentally ran into Steve at a grocery store. They said they should catch up, but they never did… God that voice did things to him as a teenager and apparently, they still do._

“What’s wrong Stevie? Don’t you wanna hang? For old time’s sake?”

“No, I don’t want to “hang.” Now please leave.” Steve clearly wasn’t in the mood to deal with Rumlow’s shit right now, nor was he ever.

Bucky stood from his table and sat down next to Steve, who was conveniently sitting at the table adjacent to his. “He said get lost.” Steve jumped a little bit but gave Bucky a small smile.

“Oh look, his little sidekick came too! How ya doin’ Jamie?” Ward had the nerve to ask.

“Not too great now that you two pricks are here.” Steve was trying to play nice. Bucky wasn’t.

“Damn. Are all the gays this feisty?” _God, this asshole._

“Only when I’m in need of a good dicking,” Bucky said casually, making Steve choke a little on his glass of water.  

“Geez, way to be blunt. Little man has a mouth on him.” _Why the hell is he pretending like they’re old buddies? He must want to punch my face in as much as I want to punch him._ Bucky though. And in case he hadn’t noticed, Bucky had gotten a little bigger since the last time Rumlow tried to beat the shit out of him.

“Yeah, and it’s gonna be on you in about two seconds if you don’t get the fuck out of here.”

“Fine, fine, we’re going.” They turned to leave. “Don’t forget to say hi before the night’s over!” And they were gone.

“Like hell we will,” Bucky said to Steve.

“That was so great. Loved the look on his face.” Steve was trying to hold back a blinding smile.

“What the one of residual constipation?”

“Yeah that one, only more constipated.” Bucky agreed.

The two old friends shared smiles that they both had secretly missed.

“Always good to see you, Buck.” Steve gave him a little side hug from his chair.

“Back at ya Rogers. You grew a little, even since the last time I saw you.”

“Yeah, well growing out of that asthma sure helped things along.” Steve poked Bucky’s side with his elbow. “And I don’t know why you’re acting so surprised, we’re probably about even in size now.”

“Ain’t that a first.” Bucky saw something in Steve’s eyes that almost looked like genuine happiness.

 

\-----

 

They had been sitting at the table catching up for about 30 minutes when they decided to go get refills on their drinks.

“So, did you ever actually end up moving back to Brooklyn? I know you were visiting for a bit when I last saw you, but I didn’t really follow up with you after that.” Bucky asked Steve as they approached the bar.

“No, I never did end up moving back. D.C. has been pretty good to me, but I got out of a long a complicated relationship a few months ago and things at work have taken a turn for the worst. But I’ll be staying in town for a few extra days after this to look at some places and I guess we’ll see what happens.” Steve sighed at the end of his spiel as the bartending finished his drink. “Thanks.” He took a sip and continued, “My friend Tony said he could hook me up with a job up here if I did decide to make the move. I’m still trying to decide if now is the right time though.”

“I get that. Sometimes you gotta just go with your gut, you know?” His drink was now done too, and he gave the bartender a polite nod. Both men turned to face the rest of the crowd but stayed leaning against the bar.

“Steve! Hey!” _Oh God,_ Steve thought as a tall blonde woman approached them who was obviously wearing too much makeup.

“Hi,” Steve said, almost sounding like a question.

“Oh my God! It’s been so long!” Her hand wrapped a hand around his arm that was holding his drink while the other came to rest on his chest. “Wanna dance with me while we catch up?”

Steve knew the only reason why she was over here. He was well aware that he looked a hell of a lot better now than he did 10 years ago, he worked hard for it. He may not recognize who she is, but he did know that the only people he ever talked to or cared about in high school were Bucky, Nat, and Sam. Everyone else treated him like garbage. “No thanks, I’m fine over here with Bucky.” 

She looked at Bucky like she just realized he was there. “Bucky Barnes!?! I hardly recognized you!” _More like hardly noticed,_ Bucky though. No matter how much he had filled in over the past 10 years, Bucky was still gay, and the whole school still pretended that he didn’t exist. “Please, Steve? Just one dance?”

“Sorry, not interested.” Steve wasn’t stupid, he knows what _just one dance_ leads to and he hasn’t swung that way since freshman year. _13 years ago._ The woman slowly took her hands off Steve, _finally_ , and said, “Well if you change your mind, let me know.” He gave her a polite nod before she walked away.

“Yeah, not gonna happen,” Steve said to Bucky now that they were alone again.

“What, not interested in Ms Cheer Captain?” Bucky chided.

“Nope. Now that I’ve actually grown into my shoes people seem to think that I forgot they all treated us like shit in high school.” Steve took a sip of his drink. “Like 3 other girls have hit on me tonight and I’ve only been here for an hour.”

“That’s rough. Try being not so friendly maybe? Glare at them until they leave, Nat taught me that.”

That got a small laugh and a head shake out of Steve, “fine, I’ll give it a shot.”

 

\-----

 

“I wish that everyone would get the memo that I’m not interested.” Steve sighed an hour later as the fourth girl he had glared at tonight finally got the message. She even had Bucky glaring at her this time. How could someone be _that_ oblivious?

“Stevie, do you have a secret someone at home that you have yet to tell me about?” Bucky feigned shock.  

“No Buck, I’m just not interested in any of them and not one of them is listening to me when I tell them that! That one girl even tried twice!” 

Steve thinks for a moment, “Okay wait, I have a plan. Do you trust me?”

“Yeah, of course. It may have been a few years, but of course.”

“And, just to clarify, you _are_ single right.”

“Yeah, last time I checked… why Steve, are you hitting on me?” Bucky tried to say in a fake flirty voice.

“No reason, just double checking. Play along.” Steve got a mischievous gleam in his eyes and Bucky didn’t quite know what the man had in mind, but something about it said this would be memorable, everything with Steve always was.

He could see Steve turn toward the gaggle of women that were hovering adjacent to them, trying to be oblivious but failing miserably. Most of them were the kind of people he hated the thought of way back when.

“Hey ladies,” he started, “This is the last time I’m going to say this, and maybe you all will hear me this time, I’m not interested, sorry.”

Some red-haired girl in the front, that Bucky didn’t remember the name of, spoke up, “Can we ask why?” She stepped forward and put both hands on his chest. “You haven’t even given any of us a chance Steve.” God that voice made Bucky cringe. Steve lifted her hands off his suit and tried not to gag.

“I shouldn’t have to give a reason; you should be able to accept my choice and respect it. Anyway, it’s because I know I’m not interested in any of you, nor will I ever.” Okay, maybe that last part was a bit much, but he still got his point across.

“How do you know?” The mouthy redhead spoke, almost like she was trying to prove something.

Steve looked at Bucky who was only a step behind him. He set his drink down on a nearby table then rested his hand on Bucky’s arm. His other hand was suddenly on Bucky’s face and before Bucky had time to process the situation, Steve’s lips were on his. It didn’t take long for him to react and melt into the kiss. His thoughts were a mix of _What the FUCK?_ And, _God, don’t stop._ Ending almost too quickly, Steve pulled away with his hand still on Bucky’s face. He took a step back and, with a little more edge to his voice, he said, “Because I’m not available and I’m not interested in women. Is that a good enough reason?” The group of women slowly nodded, “Now, excuse me, ladies.” Steve pulled his hand from his face but slid his left hand to wrap further around Bucky’s arm, leading them outside and into the courtyard of the venue.  

“Stevie…” Bucky started once they were more in private, now coming out of his bubble of just him and Steve.

“I’m so sorry, Bucky. I should have asked you first. I-If you didn’t want me to kiss you, I totally understand, but it worked and now we can talk in peace without being interrupted every 5 minutes.” Steve rushed out.

“Steve please tell me you weren’t bluffing about being into guys.”

“Of course not, I would never joke about something like that.”

“Okay… Good.”

There was a short awkward silence before Steve asked, confidence from earlier suddenly disintegrating, “so, uh, d-did you like it?” He cleared his throat, “the kiss?”

“Yes!” Bucky replied all too quickly, “Yeah, I-I mean yeah, it was… I-I enjoyed it. A lot.”

“Good, because I really want to do it again.” 

And suddenly Steve’s lips were on his again, and Bucky had nothing to complain about.

When they finally had to pull back to breathe, Bucky rested his forehead on Steve’s with one hand cradling the back of his head.

“I’ve wanted to do that since I was 16.” Steve breathed out.

“14.” Was all Bucky could get out of his mouth.

“What?”

“I’ve wanted to do that since I was 14.” Bucky clarified.

“Fuck, I should have said something sooner.” A small laugh came out of Steve’s mouth. “Would’ve saved us a lot of time.”

Steve’s hands were still cradling Bucky’s face, Bucky had one hand on the back of Steve's head and one on his chest. Neither of them wanted to let go of the other.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner Buck.” Steve almost whispered. “I was so scared.”

“It’s okay Stevie…”

He sat on a neighbouring bench, disconnecting himself from Bucky. “N-no it’s not. It wasn’t fair to you or myself and I just kept pushing everything down and I told myself it was for the best, at least at the time. But was it really?”

“You had no way of knowing Stevie, it’s okay.” Bucky put his hand back in Steve’s as he sat next to him.  

“I at least knew there was a chance of you liking me back though. I at least knew you were into guys! You had no way of even knowing that me liking you was a possibility!” Steve sounded so angry with himself. “And for that I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry Steve, if you weren’t ready, you weren’t ready. What happened has already happened, we can't change it no matter how much we want to." Bucky said. "Besides, there’s no rule saying that you have to come out because your best friend does.”

“God, but you didn’t even get the chance to come out though, someone did it for you!” Steve paused to rest his head against Bucky’s shoulder. “You didn’t come to school for the rest of the week, and when you finally did, it took 2 more days for you to say anything to me. You had become a shell of a person for a while. God, I was so scared for you. I tried to protect you the best I could.”

It suddenly dawned on Bucky, “is that why you always got in fights? You were trying to protect me?”

“They were always saying shit about you. I couldn’t just stand there and do nothing!”

“Steve, you got suspended like 3 times! I couldn’t have been worth that much!”

Steve planted a firm kiss to Bucky’s lips, “and that’s where you’re wrong. Fuck, I basically thought the sun shone out of your ass.” Steve giggled. He g _iggled._ “So, when Rumlow and those assholes had the nerve to say all kinds of shit about you I would just want to knock all their teeth in. Err, try to.”

“You’re the reason I was happy again,” Bucky nervously whispered without realizing that it explained nothing.

“What do you mean?”

“After those, very much _private_ , pictures of me at that party got out, I didn’t feel like myself anymore. My innermost secret was shouted to the rest of the world when I wasn't ready and all I could do was sit back and watch it burn. Saving your dumb ass from fights made me want to take care of myself better so I could take care of _you_. In a way, saving your ass from those fights saved my own ass.”

“Jesus, aren’t we a pair.” They both erupted in fits of laughter.

After a brief calming silence, Steve spoke up. “I missed you. So much.” He cradled Bucky’s face before closing the gap between them again. Bucky’s soft lips on his felt like heaven. And he never wanted it to end.  

Steve looked straight into Bucky's eyes and said, "I guess I have a reason to come back to Brooklyn after all."


End file.
